Maybe he does it because he likes you
by XoxILoveyouxoX
Summary: an AU following the aftermath of Trolls; Poppy and Branch get in a fight her friends think that maybe he's mean to her because he likes her.


This is an au based off of the aftermath of trolls. In this AU nothing romantic happened between Branch and Poppy. Branch was not a part of the adventure at all.

* * *

When Queen Poppy ended up bringing peace between the Trolls and Bergens, everyone happily moved back to the Troll Tree. Branch reluctantly moved out of his bunker, reminding himself to keep it as a backup safe space, and built a new one underground below the Troll Tree. Everyone was happy moving forward and began moving into their new pods in the tree. Poppy began rearranging her large palace sized pod, but something had felt off. She had imagined sharing this pod with Creek, until she had learned of his betrayal. Now, who would sit next to her? She didn't really have anyone in mind. She stared at her large bed, feeling a bit empty. She took a deep breath. "As Queen, I should be more focused on keeping every troll and bergen happy, not on finding a love interest." She grabbed her checklist and hopped out of her pod, looking around at the decorations being set up for the party later that evening. Guy Diamond glittering everything? Check. Suki doing her music walkthrough? Check. Biggie and Cooper were busy blowing up balloons and hanging up confetti shooters. Check. She saw Satin and Chenille hanging up zipped up clothing bags with peoples names on them. Those must be the costumes. Check. She looked at the last thing. Make sure all the invitations were handed out! Great! That was almost done. There was just one troll left to hand the invite to. Branch, the grey troll who never left his home. She smiled, she would make sure he kept this invitation and accepted it, without tearing it this time! She stuffed an invite into her back pocket from the front table and headed out and away from the pods. She went into the old underground tunnel, and saw the secret lever that he hid so horribly. She smirked and pulled it. It opened and she hopped down into the hole. Soon it took her straight down and into another familiar looking bunker. She looked around at all the jars and traps and crafting materials. He sure did a lot of activities. She sighed and went to his desk, placing the invitation there quietly. He wasn't around, and she didn't want to wake him if he was somewhere nearby sleeping. She sighed and turned around, only to smack right into something hard. She staggered backwards and rubbed her nose, before realizing it was Branch's chest she had run into. He crossed his arms and glared at her, as if waiting for an explanation. She smiled happily, "Branch! My man, what's up?"

"What are you doing here, _your highness_?" He hissed. She smiled even more, she had always rubbed it in his face since she got back that he now had to believe she was going to be their Queen, and that she had done what he had doubted she could do.

_'I can't believe you're going to be the Queen.'_

That's what he had said, and she was confident in proving that she was worth the title.

"Branch, it's just me, you can just call me Poppy." She batted her eyes at him, then moved to the side, letting him see the invite she left on his desk. "We're having a party tonight, and I wanted to invite you."

"What's the occasion? Didn't we already celebrate our freedom from the bergens?" He eyed her curiously. She took a deep breath.

"Can't we just have a good ole get together?" She said, half laughing, "As friends?"

"Friends?" His eyes narrowed, "Since when were we friends? Don't you have that Creek to go be friends with?"

That hurt her a lot. She frowned and looked down, he had no idea. She shouldn't hold it against him. "Creek, yeah..." She muttered. He noticed her change of mood instantly and sighed.

"Look, I'm flattered really but I just don't do parties. It's not my scene." He picked up her invite, tossing it into the trash. Her heart tore and she could only force a smile.

"Okay, well, if you ever change your mind... you know where to find me."

"I won't come find you. That's a promise." He turned to her again, "You can leave now."

She felt another tug at her heart. "Why Branch? You're the only person who refuses to be friends with me? Did I do something wrong? Did I say something mean? I'm friends with everyone, so why won't you be friends with me?"

"Since when am I obliged to explain anything to you?" He snorts and approaches her quickly, taking her wrist and pulling her to him so he could glare down at her, "Not everyone in this world will like you. Get over it."

"Then what did I do to make you not like me?"

"You didn't _do_ anything."

"Then why don't you like me!?"

"I just don't like you, okay!?"

He had snapped, a lot closer to her than he had been before, his face close to hers, rage in his eyes as he stared deep into hers. That changed the moment he saw tears prickle the corner of her eyes. He sighed deeply, knowing he would have to apologize. "Poppy, look, I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that my existence is such a bother to you. I'm sorry that I don't have to do anything but simply exist for someone to not like me." She whispered. She turned away quickly, "Goodbye, Branch." He reached out to apologize again but she had already left. He felt an incredible amount of guilt hit him all at once. What was this aching feeling in his heart? It felt similar. He turned and eyed the invitation in the trash. He made his way over and picked up the scrap of paper out of the garbage. He opened it, surprised to see no pop up extravaganza this time.

_Dear Guest,_

_Please join us this evening for Queen Poppy's birthday bash. There will be food and music and we encourage all of her friends to join us tonight as we celebrate the birthday of the girl who has done so much for us. _

"Ah..." He banged his head on his desk. Stupid stupid. He was so stupid.

* * *

He had decided to go, combing back his troll hair and applying some gel to make it a bit fancy. He scrunched up his face. This wasn't like him to try so hard. He sighed, and picked up the perfectly wrapped present from his desk. He held it between his arm and chest and walked out of his bunker. He quirked an eyebrow as he got closer to the Troll Tree center. He couldn't hear anything, that was quite strange. When he showed up, he saw people taking decorations and everything down. He wanted to assume he had just missed it, but the look on people's faces made him think something else. Slowly, he approached Guy Diamond who had been taking down some balloons. The glitter troll looked down at Branch with wide eyes, "Branch, wow, it's a weird occurance to see you out of your bunker."

"Um, yeah..." He muttered. "Anyway, I thought there was supposed to be a party tonight?"

"Got cancelled." Cooper stated from nearby, "Poppy felt really down and cancelled it."

"Poppy cancelled a party?" Branch asked. The guilt hit him again, and he knew immediately it was his fault it had been cancelled.

"Yeah, she looked so... sad. I thought she was gonna lose her colors." Cooper packed away the deflated balloons into a box. "But she kept them and stayed strong. I wonder if she's still heart broken about Creek."

Just the mention of that guys name made Branch's blood boil. He hated that troll. He always thought he was better than Branch, and acted all high and mighty. "What? Did they break up? Have a fight?"

"What? You didn't know?" Copper turned his head slightly. "Creek betrayed Poppy when she saved the trolls. He was teaming up with the chef that tried to kill us all. In the end, he met a terrible fate." Cooper picked up the box with his mouth and placed it on a table. "I think the fact that he betrayed her hurt her more than hearing of his death, but I feel like that was karma trolls wishing."

Branch blinked.

Creek betrayed Poppy.

He had told Poppy she had Creek to go to.

He really was an idiot.

"Well, I got her this present..." Branch coughed, "What should I do with it?"

"If Poppy is still up, maybe you could go up to her pod and give it to her?" Guy said, as he farted on the gift, covering it in glitter. Blanch glared and he shrugged in return, "What? Poppy likes glitter. Maybe it'll make her feel better."

"Um, okay. Thanks. I'll be going." Branch nodded towards them and headed up to Poppy's pod.

* * *

Poppy laid in bed, shooting back another Trollholic drink as she looked through her scrapbook. She grumbled, her mind taking her back to what had happened when she returned home.

_Chenille and Satin followed Poppy into her pod as the pink troll queen threw herself on her bed and cried. They each approached her, looking at each other with worrying eyes before asking her the question, "What's wrong Poppy?"_

_Poppy looked up at them, her make up falling down her face as she wailed uncontrollably into their arms, "Oh girls, Branch just said... some mean things to me!" She explained everything in detail to them, about Creek and how he didn't have a reason for not liking her, he just didn't. She explained how she got there and how he held her wrist. The girls patted her back as she cried._

_"It sounds like Branch doesn't know about what happened with Creek." Said Satin._

_"Yeah!" Chanille said, "I don't know why he would say that other stuff... But maybe it's hard for Branch to express emotion? So maybe he say's he doesn't like you but he does... He just doesn't understand how to express it and just get's frustrated with you for being able to express it so easily?"_

_Poppy sniffed as her friends rubbed her hair, then Satin had an idea._

_"Maybe he got jealous." She said suddenly. "And maybe he's mean to you because... he does like you?"_

_"Huh?" Poppy asked suddenly as she sat up. The troll twins smiled._

_"It's easy Poppy! It makes sense!"_

_"Branch doesn't know how to express his emotion, so he acts like a little school troll boy!"_

_"Yeah yeah! I remember Guy Diamond use to throw glitter at me when he was little because he used to have a crush on me, so that was how he expressed it!"_

_"So, you girls are saying that..." Poppy flushed, "Branch... is mean to me because he doesn't know how to show he loves me so he shows it in an opposite loving way?"_

_"Correct!" The girls smirked. "Now, you should get some rest, Queen! And tomorrow, is a new day. And will be better!"_

_The twins hugged their friend and Poppy smiled and gave them her thanks. They left and Poppy took a deep breath. Branch liked her. What the heck? She needed a drink. She slipped into a spaghetti strap silk night gown and grabbed a bottle of Trollka. It was going to be a long night._

And that was what her night had been like. She laid in bed in her pod with the lights off and a dim candle on her desk. The bottle of trollka was empty. And her vision was hazy. The young twenty year old troll was suddenly on her feet when she heard her door open. She heard the familiar voice and smelt the familiar scent.

"Poppy?" Oh Troll. It was Branch. What was he doing here at this time of night? Oh no his footsteps were getting closer. She turned quickly to return to her bed, only her feet got caught in the sheets and she tripped and fell. The footsteps stopped at her doorway to her bedroom, and their was an awkward silence as Poppy looked at Branch from an awkward angle on the ground, and he stared at her in equal shock, a gift in his arms. Her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet and rushed towards him, blinking quickly. She swayed a bit, a little drunk, and eyed the present in his arms. She looked back at him, too scared to say anything as to not fight him like she had earlier. He avoided her eye contact and pushed the present into her arms. "For... you."

She blinked and looked down at the gift. For her? She smiled sweetly, and took the present in her hands. Then she turned and walked to her desk, momentarily lingering over the empty space on her desk, before glaring almost too sweetly at Branch. He cocked a head at her, a bit confused, until she dropped the present into the garbage bin next to her desk. He looked at her with wide eyes and then glared as he stalked towards her, "Poppy!" Her back hit her desk as he towered over her, "What the heck!?"

"What's wrong?" She smirked and crossed her arms.

"You just threw that away! I made it for you!"

"You didn't seem to care when you were throwing away things I made you!" She snapped.

"That's different. You know I don't like gifts."

"Well, right now I don't particularly like you, so I don't like your gifts either." She had glared at him and he was a bit shocked. Poppy, disliking someone? He sighed and picked the present out of the garbage and pushed it back into her chest, softer this time.

"Poppy, please, let's not fight tonight, okay? I said some things earlier that I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry."

"Which part in particular are you sorry for?" She growled, looking away, face flushed and tears stinging her eyes.

"I'm sorry for what I said about Creek. I didn't know." She refused to make eye contact with him, but spoke softly.

"It hurt... a lot." She whispered. "When Creek... hurt me."

"..."

"I thought he was the troll for me." She whispered, the present dropping to her feet, "I imagined being Queen and him my King. Us sharing this bed together. And now, I feel empty and alone, betrayed and... hurt." She shuffled against the desk awkwardly. Branch raged internally, the thought of Creek being King made him want to be a bergen.

"And then you..." Poppy's drunk voice called out angrily, and she glared up at him again, "Saying all those other mean things to me for no reason! Destroying invitation after invitation that I spend a lot of my time working on for you and you just tear them up and destroy them and say mean things to me! How dare you!" She pressed her body up against his, his throat supressing a moan that almost escaped. Her night gown was very see through and you could feel everything through the thin material. He looked up at the ceiling instead of down at her.

"And then you said you didn't like me..." Her voice lowered to a whisper and tears threatened to spill as her voice cracked, "Which I don't understand. Why don't you like me? Or is it you do like me and don't know how to express your feelings to me?"

He jumped suddenly when her hands slithered up his shirt, and he cussed internally. His eyes looked down to see Poppy with her head buried in his chest. It was dark, the candle only barely lit up the room. "I ... geez Poppy. I'm sorry I said that too. I was just angry in the moment."

"Don't apologize unless you mean it." She looked up at him again, angry. "I don't want you to apologize for not liking me, unless that's how you truly feel." She pressed up even closer to him and he sat down, bringing her with him, not able to handle the pressure anymore as his arms slid around her waist.

"I'm sorry for saying I don't like you..." He muttered. She smiled and her lips found his neck. He flushed as her arms wrapped around his neck.

"I really think you're cute and handsome Branch, even as a grey troll." Soon her lips had found his ears and he almost passed out right then and there. He pushed her onto her back and she gasped as he looked down at her. He realized then and there that she was drunk, how much of this would she actually remember in the morning? He took a deep breath and leaned down quickly, kissing her sweetly for a second before pulling back and kissing down her own neck. She gasped and grabbed a bunch of his dark hair roughly, before his lips found their way back to her mouth, giving her sweet kisses again. He lifted her up suddenly and she wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing their hips closer and grinding against him suddenly. He growled and lowered her onto her bed, "Careful, Poppy..." He kissed her sweet lips one last time before he pulled away, looking into her eyes seriously, "We'll finish this conversation in the morning when you're sober."

"But Branch, I don't want to be alone..." She muttered, exhausted from all their kissing, "My bed...my home... it all feels empty. Stay with me?" She held onto his hand tightly and he smiled. He crawled into her bed and laid next to her, she curled into his chest and purred.

"Thank you, Branch." She yawned slightly, snuggling into him some more. "I like you..." Her eyes closed and soon she was asleep, her breathing soft and her positive energy levels coming back up. He smiled and closed his eyes, pulling the covers over them as he softly said,

"I like you too..."


End file.
